Vidya Balan reveals her fascination for Bollywood Badshah Shahrukh Khan, her prerequisites for marriage and why she washes her own plate.

‘I don’t have presumptions of being a huge star’

My family and friends keep me grounded. Without sounding parochial, it’s my South Indian upbringing, which has kept me rooted. Apparently, actor Meenakshi Sheshadhri would wash her own plate after lunch. I do the same. For my parents, my sister’s job appraisal is as important as the appreciation I receive.

‘I love Shahrukh Khan’

I met him recently, when 30 stars shot for a number in his production ‘Om Shanti Om’. He’s so gracious. He has been a part of my impressionable years in the way he wooed his heroines! I feared being tongue-tied on meeting him. But he put me at ease effortlessly.

‘I’d love to do a glamorous role’

It depends on how you define glamour and the way it’s treated. Glamour’s merely equated with exposure. There’s hardly anybody as glamorous as Dimple Kapadia or Rekha But they never stripped.

‘I see romance in everything’

Romance for me would mean sipping chai by the fireside with poetry being read out to me. Somebody once paid me a poetic compliment, ‘You’re a woman for all seasons!’ I was too overwhelmed to understand it.

‘Link-ups can be unfair’

Curiosity around you is natural, being a public figure. Earlier, I’d get upset about it. But I’ve learnt to be non-reactive and insulate myself.

‘I’m a committed person’

My man should be a good human being, someone with whom I can be myself, and who accepts me the way I am. I don’t see quitting films as a prerequisite for marriage. It depends on that moment.